Spiritual Living Podcast Archive

This Mother's Day inspires us to "mother" a new idea, that is, to nurture a new idea. We do this through the seven faces of intention: Creativity, kindness, love, beauty, expansion, abundance, and receptivity. We all bring into our lives what is required by right of consciousness so that we can move through it to bring mastery and awareness to our experience.

In reviewing the various chapters of her life, Rev. Connie Nissen explores the power of intention and how we can align ourselves with it. An intention isn't about getting something, but about our participation with God's highest intention for us and our willingness to allow the power of Spirit to flow through us. It sets a direction in our lives. She ends by encouraging us to create a personal intention for our lives.

What moves us into prayer? Desperation or inspiration? If we are not together in the heart, what's the point? When body and soul are not dancing, there is no pleasure in colourful clothing. -- Rumi Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. -- Rev. 22:17. Moments of pain, fear, anxiety, and anguish give us the opportunity to break our hearts open. When hearts get cracked open, they get bigger. Such a crack or wound allows love to come in and to go out if we have the courage to listen and allow ourselves to walk through that moment. Our goal is to be present with a heart that is connected with something greater than ourselves.

Easter and the holy days are rites of passage, marking cycles, circles, and seasons. In his life's story, Jesus said, "Destroy this body and consciousness will rise up." His life was raised up by the power of his word and his intention. Easter is the transformation from the material to the spiritual. In this transformation, there must be a death of one thing to allow the creation of another. In this way, we must train ourselves to see our difficulties as opportunities for the raising of consciousness.

"Lack" is what we have imagined it would be like if Spirit were not abundant. But there is no reality in lack. Abundance is manifest here and now, awaiting our awareness of it. Jesus said, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Heaven is not a place but a state of mind, a state of being, the connection with the Source of All Life. So Jesus was advocating the embodiment of Christ Consciousness: The transformation of consciousness into that heavenly state of awareness. We came to this life to contribute and create. Our gratitude transforms lack into abundance. Our hidden feelings help create the needs being met in our lives. Lack is our invitation to go deeper.

Prayer. It is more than just asking for things we want. It is essential for our happiness. To connect to Spirit replenishes our Spirit. Prayer is most powerful when done from the spaciousness of our connection to Spirit. Rev. Patrick introduces the book of the month, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen by Mark Nepo, as he weaves together four principles of life through a poignant parable about an apprentice. The apprentice gains insight from his work in a bakery, winery, farm, and along the seashore. Through the stages, he learns what it means to be a sieve (sifting through flour is like sifting through life's experiences to get the finest things out of life), a strainer (if we're not careful, we can become "drunk" on the dregs of life, the negative experiences of our past), a funnel (directing water for irrigation is like connecting to Spirit), and a sponge (there is great joy in taking in whatever life is giving, and giving of oneself freely, without inhibition.)

The final question from Muller's book is, "What shall our gift be to the family of earth?" Yet, first, we must ask ourselves, "How can we contribute when we are wracked with shame?" We must live a wholehearted life. Brené Brown, in her insightful book The Power of Vulnerability, gives us four antidotes to shame: Recognize our shame, and know when we're in it. Practice critical thinking around our shame. We must talk to ourselves about it. Share our feelings and vulnerability with others; tell our stories. Give a voice to shame.

Often in times of crisis, we look to grab onto something that has meaning. Many of us feel hurt or flawed, and because of this, we often feel like we have no real gift to give. But this kind of thinking can be more costly than the original abuse. We believe that we have been broken by our suffering. But the sorrows are not unbearable; these wounds can heal. Our sorrow does not contaminate our gift. Our sorrow can become our gift. A gift not offered dies in the heart. The Family of Earth aches for our gift to be offered.

To start out, we hear reports from three teens who went to Winter Camp. Then, Rev. Patrick once again weaves a message of hope from the writings of Mark Nepo, Wayne Muller, and his own insights, reminding us what a gift life is, through a tender discussion of death. When things happen in our lives, we can choose to judge them---to decide if they are right or wrong---or to see what is true in them for us. If we allow ourselves to get caught up in judging, then we spend our lives sorting instead of living. Throughout our lives, we learn how to ask for what we need; then we must learn how to accept what we are given as a result of that asking. The answer lies, always, inside us---in the pray-er. The reward of asking for what we need is that we become intimate with our own nature---we see where we are not matching our desires. We all have dreams, goals, and an identity. These are good, but they are not our ultimate end-point; they are a cocoon where growth happens. Eventually, we outgrow them and a new self emerges.

Delving into the second part of Wayne Muller's book How Then, Shall We Live?, we examine what we love. It is not a straightforward question to answer---sometimes, we adopt others' ideas, follow our upbringing, or find we are influenced by others' expectations. It is a beautiful journey to truly discover what we love. "At the Window" by Mark Nepo Our lives are shaped by what we have loved. In one sense, we become those things we have loved---they shape our destiny, give us purpose and identity. We gain courage from what we love, and it propels us forward. We have to be careful not to try and hold too many things in our hearts. It is good to accept our limitations about how much we can love. We can get distracted when we try to love too much, or do too much---like trying to hold too many eggs at once. Taking on too much can make us judge ourselves---it is better to hold something small, but hold it well. "Accepting This" by Mark Nepo

Pulling from Wayne Muller's book How Then, Shall We Live?, we learn that our identity does not come from what we achieve, how we fail, or what has happened to us. Could we possibly be able to say to ourselves one day: I am the light of the world. I am a marvel. My story is not who I am. Let's soften the story and lighten the load, so we can grow in a beautiful, expansive way, to be the light of the world.

We all want to expand in love and creativity. We all want to explore our spiritual nature. Our nature is that we are the Unconditioned Spirit trapped in conditions. Like the sun in eclipse, our Wisdom-Self has Its roots in the unseen world. So our Divine nature is to live in freedom, to be happy. But, often, we feel that we are trapped in conditions. Always doing our best is about action. As we bring new awareness to our action, we can make new agreements with Fortune, prosperity, love. And in so doing, we can transcend the weight of the conditions in our lives.

We all have beliefs and assumptions about ourselves, our partners, our peers, and our neighbours. But sometimes our assumptions aren't true, and yet we believe that they are right. And when someone challenges us on a belief that we think is right, we take it personally. And then we resort to using poisonous words. Assumptions are created in our past and projected into our future. But in living this way, we are missing our opportunity to live in the present moment. When we realize the higher truth about ourselves, an inner awareness will move into our lives, and all of a sudden, life shows up differently. This process begins with our willingness to step into our spiritual practice. Such practice can bring us an intuitive awareness that we are not alone here, that we are beings of light and love. And soon we will start to act from that place (and pray from that place, not begging, but knowing who we are) and that we're here to be that representation of love. Then we won't need to make assumptions anymore. We won't need to take things personally. And we will be able to speak our word clearly and with courage. We need to ask questions---to question our beliefs. Our power to change, not who we are, but how we are, is so much more powerful than we can imagine.

Nothing others do is because of us. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality (the dream they inhabit). When we are immune to the opinions and actions of others, we won't be the victim of needless suffering. This is emotional immunity. We develop this through understanding and being in high relationship with ourselves. It is a process of individuation, of creating boundaries. Let us relax into the mystery of life. Once there, the path home lights up from within.

Today is Groundhog Day, a day about being stuck in a paradigm of beliefs, causing us to have the same experience over and over. So how do we move out of the trap of repetition into newness? As Don Miguel Ruiz wrote in The Four Agreements, the first agreement is to be impeccable with our word. Our word is so powerful. When our way of being is lined up with our word, it becomes a potent and powerful experience. We need a great deal of courage to challenge our beliefs. Even if we know we didn't choose all of our beliefs, we know that we agreed to all of them. And so we experience feelings of blame, guilt, and shame as we start to go against "the rules". We need to be accepted and loved by others, but we have to first accept and love ourselves. Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. If we want to find a life of joy and fulfillment, we must find the courage to break these fear-based agreements that claim our personal power.

This January, we are in "Starting Over" mode. We can all start where we are. We can all start small. So we ask, what is the one thing that we can do, to put into our consciousness, that will make everything else different from this point forward? Spiritual practice provides clarity. And clarity helps us to make better decisions, so we can choose in a different way. It provides attention to completing tasks. With it, joy and uplift become more readily available. It steadies and grounds us in the world. It allows us to see life on a macro level. It gives us a quieter and deeper relationship with our inner life. Spiritual practice assists us in staying grounded in the simplicity of now. It creates personal intimacy. It connects us with our true Spirit, our Divine Self.

We must look at a thing long enough until it has no more power over us. In this talk, the community undertakes a cleansing and visioning exercise to help break through old patterns and fears. Our task is this: to mine the depths of our being and become more informed and intimately connected with the truth of our being. And in so doing, we will be guided in our journey. In other words, when we know who we are, we begin to live out of inspiration.

Ernest Holmes, our founder, said, "Our natural state of being is abundance and freedom." Wouldn't it be amazing to live more from our natural state? We can, if we are willing to do the following: Stop worrying Stop being ornery Stop complaining and gossiping Stop watching television... or watch it with more determination, more intention Distract ourselves more effectively---towards things that don't feed the resistance Meditate/connect with Spirit every day Express deep gratitude Only speak of hopeful and wanted things Soften our inner dialogue... be kind to ourselves Give up comparing ourselves to others Source never stops knowing who we really are. We are the ones who fall into a state of resistance when we forget our divinity.

This year's theme is the Year of Spiritual Practice, and this month's word is study. Inside our mind's "land of editing", we have to decide what's going to be a diamond and what's going to be a rock. We are geared for discovery, and we're designed to decide which experiences we will label as good and as bad. In the ten spiritual realms (Dharma Dhatu) of the Buddhism of T'ien T'ai, integrity, inner freedom, and compassion comprise the characteristics of the upper four spiritual realms. In those realms are the world of learning (aspiration to enlightenment) and the world of realization. This month, how do we apply ourselves to the practice of study? Study some sacred texts Love everything Teach

In this final talk for the year, Rev. Patrick discusses setting intentions and how we measure success around those intentions. In reflecting upon our lives, we need to understand where we are before we head off in a new direction. If we don't create a blueprint for what we would like our lives to express, then we become subject to the law of averages. Successful people accept life as it is, with all of its difficulties and challenges. They adapt instead of complain. Successful people accept responsibility. What they take ownership of, they can change. Successful people say yes to life. They make the most of life. Successful people build good relationships. Successful people have a sense of direction and purpose. Successful people get the most out of life because they put the most into it.

Finding the Christ is about the birthing of a consciousness. Finding the Christ is the universality of sonship, embodied in any individual who recognizes that sonship. It is available to us if we're available to It. The Eternal is forever begetting that which is the realization of Its own perfection. Spirit is always looking for more expression. We must develop the spiritual awareness and the capacity for Spirit's expression. To know God is to love, for without love there is no knowledge of God. As the Christ awakens, the divine spark---shot from central fires of the Universal Flame---is able to warm other souls by the radiance of its own self-unfoldment. Our work is to invite It. Let us learn to be still and let the Truth speak through us; to be still and know that the Inner Light shines.

"Our divine inheritance is self-sufficiency, perfection, peace, wholeness, and this must include abundance, self-expression, accomplishment, and happiness. The nature of happiness is peace. The nature of peace is harmony. The nature of harmony is joy..." -- Ernest Holmes At this Christmas season, "love, joy and peace" are forefront in all our minds. The beautiful truth is that everything lovely can come easily, for although we are "masters of time, space, and dimension," we do not do it alone. We need not change the world ourselves, nor lean on other people, for there are many unseen forces---God, Angels---helping us. Angels are incredible manifestations of the Divine, and we are angels, too---a denser form of pure spirit, just here for a short time. We are here to bring more light to the world.

Rev. Catherine McLeod tells of meeting John of God, as well as stories from the life of Nelson Mandela. If we look at everyone we meet as a holy person, we will be happy. Each one of us is a holy person. We must live our lives in such a way that we remember that we are holy. Let us step outside our belief system and live in our "don't know" mind. Let us become our own guru. Once we've found our own inner power, let us live from inside out. It is one of the most difficult things, not to change society, but to change oneself.

Franz Kafka once wrote, "Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old." How has our life changed in the past year? What is our part to play in our own transformation? For example, say we wish to experience more beauty. In order to move into beauty, we need order. So it is our part to find ways to bring more order into our lives. "Our answer to the world's hope is to rely on youth. This world requires the qualities of youth---not a time of life, but a state of mind. A temper of will, a quality of the imagination, a preponderance of courage over timidity, of the appetite of adventure over the life of ease." -- Robert Kennedy

There is a difference between being motivated by desire versus acting from inspiration.

This mystical experience of the awareness of the Divine within us sometimes happens in glimpses, like getting a peek through the window of the possibility that life holds for us. But it takes doing our spiritual work, our preparation, to release ourselves from the obstacles of our error of belief, to clear the path, that that which is always within us may flow freely through us. And it's not by our choice---we don't choose what day the snow arrives---which day Spirit chooses to enter and fill us with that bliss of Its being. But it is our task to prepare ourselves, to be that open, hollow vessel that Spirit may enter, may be felt and known by us in a way greater than we have ever imagined before.

On the theme of what we really want for our children, Rev. Connie Nissen focuses on the Centre's youth programme by interviewing two youth leaders and a parent/advisor. The youth ministry in our Centre and around the world has become a youth-led ministry. The youth are helping each other learn to value themselves, to be risk takers, to be self-reliant, to be free from stress and anxiety, to have peaceful lives, to celebrate the present moment, to experience a lifetime of wellness, to be creative, to fulfill their higher needs, and to feel a sense of purpose in their life.

Like a mechanical pump which must be primed, so are our lives. We have to "give something up," such as when one pours water into the top of a pump to prime it. What does this mean in our spiritual lives? It means we choose to pick things up energetically from a Higher Source. It means we take time to learn and to look at things until they have no more power over us. It means we do the releasing work we must do in order to grow. It means in order to have financial abundance, we tithe. The key, as it is with everything, is the attitude, or consciousness, we act from.

As thinking beings, we have the capacity to futurize, to forecast events in our lives. But often, this gives us a constant state of stress, because our forecasting is one of doom and gloom, and this can lead to disease in our lives. The challenge is to believe in a greater future compared to where we've come from. If we have memorized negativity, lack and limitation, then those become our way of being. The shift requires willingness to step into a new possibility. If we don't take responsibility for our lives, who will? This requires more than positive thinking. We must have willingness to look inward, and to feel the discomfort and feel the fear that is alive there. Only then can we start to erase the old ideas and begin creating new ones. Imagination is everything. Every great person believed in a future, and they began to emotionally embrace that future before it showed up. If we tap into our inner life, and we have the courage to follow that inner life, we will always be on the very edge of our existence, on the leading edge of consciousness.

In her research on success and achievement, psychologist Carol Dweck delineates two mindsets that we can embody: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. Where do our mindsets come from? Mainly from teachers, parents, and coaches. For example, we receive messages about success from our parents. Parents think they can hand kids permanent confidence by praising their brains and talents. The problem is it doesn't work. It makes children doubt themselves as soon as anything is hard or anything goes wrong. Instead, let us teach our children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. The goal is to love learning. To eventually learn and think for ourselves. Thoughts create. So to change the conditions of our life, we need to change our thinking---change our awareness and attitude.

This week, Rev. Patrick explores ideas around healing. For years, we have lived in wrong thought. Our thinking is undisciplined, so we fall into old patterns of experience. Hence we need spiritual practice. For example, with meditation, we are able to sit with what is bubbling up for us and look at it. Furthermore, through gratitude, we are able to shift our thoughts in a new direction. We are not alone. Our bourgeoning gratitude allows us to be supported by the resources that are around us, seen and unseen. Life is really our champion. Wherever good is being expressed on the planet, we celebrate it and we are there with it. Let us be most grateful for the capacity for change---whatever conditions exist in our life right now, we are not stuck there. That is the power of gratitude.

In this week's talk, Rev. Patrick draws from Tim Minchin's commencement address at the University of Western Australia. Have a passionate dedication to short-term goals. Work with pride on whatever is in front of you. Make it your aim to make someone else happy. Realize the enormous gift that life is. Keep moving. Question opinions, including your own. Define yourself by what you love. Respect those with less power than you. Don't rush: You don't need to know what to do for the rest of your life. Fill your life with as much as you can. Learn as much as you can about as much as you can. Take your good where you find it and leave the rest alone. Take pride in whatever you're doing. Realize that your divine inheritance is self-sufficiency. It is also perfection, peace, and wholeness. And this must include abundance, self-expression, accomplishment, and happiness. Therefore, realize that God's will for your life is wholeness, peace, poise, power, and self-expression.

Preparation is an important part of the spiritual journey. So in today's talk, Rev. Patrick outlines six tools that help us to prepare: Meditation, education, circulation, service, affirmative prayer, and celebration. Were we to fully undertake these practices, we would live today in a sense of confidence, peace, and joyful expectancy.

Spirit is Changeless Reality. That which we call personality is the instrument through with Spirit operates. But Spirit can operate for the individual only by operating through him/her. The degree to which we open ourselves to that activity is the degree to which we experience shifts and changes toward our desired outcome. The view we adopt for ourselves determines the way we lead our lives. With a fixed mindset, we believe that our qualities are permanent, unchangeable. This creates an urgency to prove ourselves over and over again. But with a growth mindset, we believe our basic qualities can be cultivated through our efforts. We can grow through application and experience, through years of passion, toil, and training. Why waste time proving over and over how great we are when we could just get on with self-improvement?

Our teaching is mystical and practical. It must be practical because mysticism is about living the Divine. In his own life, Carmien Owen has begun engaging with the news as a spiritual practice, to apply the principles of our teaching to what others observe in the world. For example, regarding the latest major conflict in the news, he concludes: To presume that there must be violence to end violence in Syria, is to see Syrians as lesser than they truly are. When following the news, or in discussions with others, it is helpful to realize that truth comes from within, opinion comes from without. Blessed are those who have not seen but know. Transcend belief and move toward conviction and have that certainty. When we have realization, we abandon into God, recognizing Oneness, recognizing that this is an invitation to a divine and mystical experience. We have a knowing that it is for us to embody peace and universal love.

Guest speaker Rev. Patrick Harbula speaks about the most important principle and practice in New Thought. Love: The quality, the principle, the experience, the practice of loving-kindness. All other principles come out of this one. The energy of love that we feel is who we really are. Who we really are, our natural state, is one of unconditional love and light flowing through us, unimpeded. To experience our true being, all we have to do is surrender---to let go of everything that isn't love. We are Love unfolding Love. Our most important spiritual practice: I love myself, no matter what.

Our environment is so important. In it, are we the Thermometer or the Thermostat? When we move about in the world, are we simply absorbing the world's conditions, or are we an active blessing to the world around us? Dr. Martin Luther King said, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality." In other words, there is no private good---my good is your good. We are tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all directly. Meditation allows us to be our own authority in our own minds. It allows us to completely relax and often sleep better. It allows us to experience a sense of deep inner peace. It can teach us to lower our blood pressure. It can teach us inner discipline. It can awaken our intuition. It can enable us to do affirmative prayer more effectively. It can make us more perceptive. It can give us boundless energy. It can teach us to be more accepting of self and others. It can be a great tension reliever. It is the highest form of celebrating the presence of God. What good is a lot of knowledge if it's all wrong? And we are constantly being inundated with knowledge and opinions. Instead, we long to listen to our own heart and our own soul and follow what we are being guided to. We can all have more meaningful spiritual practices in our lives, and we can all slow down and begin to listen.

To have an extraordinary experience, we need to have the guts to say "Yes" to the moment. We can listen to our intuition all the time. We can notice the cues that life is giving us about which direction to go. But the less that we listen, the farther it goes away, and the more difficult it becomes to listen to that inner voice. So to have more than just the common experience, we have to do the uncommon. We have to begin to listen to our spirit, our soul, if we want to have the abundance, the grace, or the fireworks. We have to do life differently if we want our lives to be different. And that's where the guts come in.

Rev. Patrick examines the "Ten Stages of Spiritual Growth" by John Heckers. We enter the spiritual journey for the same reason we do many things---wanting to feel better. We find ourselves moving from an undisciplined mind to a disciplined one. We get to the stage where we realize it's time to buckle down. At a certain point, we realize that we are the problem. The rest is just breaking through our resistance, which is the bulk of our work. We have but one mind to move---our own. And if we have done that, we have succeeded.

Successful people start before they're ready. We sense that there is a deeper spiritual connection "out there". How do we fine-tune our experience? How do we identify, develop, and share our gift with the world? If we wait till we're ready, we'll never start. But what we have right now is enough to start.

In essence, how we live our lives is a description of how we manage change. We know we live in a spiritual universe, we believe there is an aspect of creativity called The Law, which says Yes to everything we give it, and we know that the Universal Spirit is personal to each one that turns to It. Abundance is being happy with what we have. Today is an abundant day for us.

Surrender says, "Here is the fire. There is love on the other side. I am walking through. I know not how I will keep from being burned, but I know that I am going through." Surrender as a spiritual practice is that we sit silently and honour the Great Intelligence that is within us, that is guiding us, that is present to us. Joseph Campbell said, "We must be willing to give up the life we've planned to have the life that's waiting for us."

David White wrote, "There is no path that goes all the way---not that it stops us from looking for the full continuation." In other words, we tend to look for the one way to take in life, and in that, we settle into fixed beliefs. But real life steps in and disrupts us through Divine Discontent---All of us have these divine urges that want us to express more. The Universe expresses itself through us, ever expanding, ever seeking new experiences and insight. What does a world that works for everyone look like? The answer is surprising.

Sometimes things fall apart because something new is seeking expression. The truth of our being is eternal, but we do fall off the rails sometimes. We fall into the trap of looking outside ourselves for happiness, for God, or for someone to change the world. It is not outside us; it is within. We create happiness within. God is within. And only within will we find the power to change the world. Our thought is creative, but in our ignorance, we use it destructively. Do we consider the existence of evil, or is it simply the misuse of good? Love overcomes both hate and fear. Celebration of life is in youth, to be undaunted by the challenges of life, to live in the wonder and the joy. We are as young as our faith and as old as our doubt, as young as our confidence and as old as our fear, as young as our hopes and as old as our despair. The challenge is to be true to ourselves. Stop trying to be somebody else. Be you. Don't change so others like you. Be your true self, so the right ones will celebrate the true you. Love yourself as a divine expression of love.

There are three great mysteries: air to the bird, water to the fish, and being to the human. Our sense of disengagement stems from our lack of awareness and mindfulness about our state of being. Being is not a popular idea. Instead, we are always trying to manipulate the circumstances of our lives, believing that happiness comes from our circumstances. But we are as happy as we choose to be. We are already a success at the level of consciousness we inhabit.

Every day we will be providing a bigger concept of life. And in that inner growth we have an enlarged power to speak forth into the Creative Mind. The result will be that we will get a fresh impulse and be doing a bigger thing for ourselves. Growth and realization are always from within and never from without. Old thoughts must be destroyed and new must take their place. Every time the old thought comes, we must look it squarely in the face and declare that it has no part in our mind. It has no power over us. We must state the Law and rely on it to the exclusion of all else. Daily try to see more and to understand more. Let us feel every day that we are being especially looked after.

Our lives are the result of what we say "Yes" to. It's important that we say yes to transformation. The transformation is not adding anything to ourselves, it's simply allowing the revelation of our true self. Ernest Holmes said that one of the most difficult things to believe is that we are always a success. We are always achieving the goal that we set up in thought. We need not worry or wonder if we will succeed, but to direct our intention to that which we really desire to succeed in.

This Father's Day, Rev. Connie Nissen speaks about the walls we put up in consciousness, and she gives us meditation exercises to help break them down. Many of us carry a hole in our heart in the shape of the father. A common story told is, "If my father had just been there, I think I would be better than I am now." But Joseph Campbell wrote, "Where we stumble, therein lies our treasure." The fatherless sons, telling that single story, may feel valueless. But we know these feelings create our experience, that our thoughts and beliefs are creative things. Our feelings are our most genuine path to knowledge---knowledge about ourselves. In examining our thoughts and feelings, we can figure out what is poison and what is medicine, what inspires and wakes us up and what keeps us running in circles. We can inform ourselves in a conscious way so that we can tell a new story and make a different choice.

Do we know our true nature? That we are Divine? Life is a projection of reality, depending on which stage of consciousness we are in. According to the Vedanta, there are six states of consciousness: Deep sleep Dreaming Waking state, but still dreaming Soul begins to awaken Cosmic consciousness, or co-creation Ever-present, witnessing awareness As our soul begins to awaken, we may enter the fifth state through the spiritual practice of surrender, forgiveness, and gratitude. Our prayer work becomes a way of life. Our consciousness is the Thing itself---we are the temple.

Rumi wrote, "When we see ourselves, we will be the ideal of ourselves." This is about seeing ourselves in the true way that we are. The Hindu Vedanta gives five reasons for our suffering: Not knowing the true nature of reality Clinging to the insubstantial Aversion to fear The identification with the false self, the ego Fear of death But what we stand for is "That"---the indescribable nature of who we are. The pertinent question is, "Do we make ourselves available to our true nature?" Let us recognize the divinity in all people. Let us fall in love with the Universal Love. Let us realize divinity through control of the mind. Let us realize divinity through knowledge.